A student was today fighting for his life after he was attacked by a gang. The 19-year-old Sri Lankan was in a parked car when he was set upon by the group of five Asian youths outside the Norfolk Court Hotel in London Road, Croydon, south London.

He suffered severe head injuries and was taken to hospital where his condition was described as critical. Police said they were keeping an open mind about the motive for the attack, which happened at 5.45pm yesterday. The victim was in a brown Vauxhall Cavalier and the gang escaped in another vehicle.

Toxic water probe

People affected by Britain's worst water poisoning incident 13 years ago were today meeting a new group set up by the Government to investigate the subsequent health implications. The group will tonight hold a public meeting in Camelford, Cornwall, where the incident happened in 1988, to explain what they will be try to achieve. Hundreds of people drank polluted water when 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate was accidentally dumped into the wrong tank at the then South West Water Authority treatment works at Lowermoor, near Camelford.

Security charge

A man arrested in connection with a break-in at Northern Ireland's highest security police station has been charged with having documents likely to be useful to terrorists. The man was one of six people arrested in Belfast and Londonderry on Saturday in relation to the raid on Castlereagh police station in east Belfast. It is understood the documents in question are not related to the breach at Castlereagh. Three men and two women were released without charge earlier this week. The theft from Castlereagh took place on March 17.

Brits in sea scare

The crew of a leaking British charter yacht were waiting for a tug to come to their aid, hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic today. The Leopard of London had issued a Mayday call in a force eight gale and seven-metre high waves, 600 miles south west of Land's End and 450 miles north east of the Azores. But the weather had now abated, and the seven strong British crew were awaiting the arrival of the tug from the Azores on Friday, said Falmouth coastguards.

Four die in blast

Four were killed and at least 20 injured when a car bomb exploded today in a Christian part of Ambon town in Indonesia. It was the first serious violation of a ceasefire deal signed in February after years of Muslim-Christian violence.

Bid to save hunts

Hunt supporters the Countryside Alliance were today unveiling more details of a campaign to save the rural sport. The move comes as the Government is set to launch a six-month consultation and another Hunting Bill into Parliament soon.

Mum tells of grief

The mother of Siamese twins who knows one of her unborn children must die to save the other has said she was petrified about the impending birth. Tina May, 23, of St Albans, Herts, is due to give birth to two girls within the next month. She told a national newspaper of the agony for her and fiance Dennis Smith, 33, of knowing that because the girls share a heart they will have to sacrifice the weaker baby.

North Pole search

A Russian plane was to search pack ice near the North Pole today for two missing Australians. Jon Muir and Eric Philips, who are attempting a 620-mile trek from northern Siberia to the North Pole, last spoke by satellite phone with their support team on March 24.

Hostages seized

Three masked robbers fled to Poland with two female hostages last night after a bank raid in a north-west German town. The robbers took the two after forcing the manager of the bank in Uelzen, to hand over money.

Under pressure

Five hours' sleep a night and career pressures are damaging modern mums' lives, research has found. Most mums are so exhausted with juggling the conflicting demands of modern life that they profess to not enjoy motherhood, the poll commissioned by Mother and Baby magazine said.

Prices still rising

House prices continued to make strong gains during March, rising by 0.4pc, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, the Halifax, said today. But there was some evidence that the property boom was beginning to ease, as the rate of annual house price inflation fell back slightly from 16.9pc in February to 16pc last month.